Read Online The Bachelor's Bed by Jill Shalvis - Free Book Online Page B

cleared his throat around the knot of desire there. “Yeah.”
    â€œAre you…um…” A red flush worked its way up her face. “You know, going to the store to get…what you need?”
    It took him only a second to realize what his sweet little fiancée wanted to know. “It’s not a good idea.”
    â€œI see.” She backed away from him, her smile wavering. “Well. Have a great day, Colin. See you tonight.”
    Tonight. God, tonight. How could he continue to resist her? Having a condom would be little protection against the true danger—her worming her way into his heart.
    After she was gone, Colin stared at the swinging door, the image of her expressive eyes imprinted on his mind. They’d held honest affection when she’d looked at him. Warm compassion. Humor. And hope.
    It was that last emotion that was going to be the hardest of all to resist.
    Â 
    G REAT -A UNT Jennie tossed back some of her sparkling cider, heavily liberated with her not-so-secret stash of whiskey, wheezing when it went down the wrong way.
    Lani shook her head with a shudder when her aunt offered her the jug. “No thanks.”
    â€œLet me get this straight.” Aunt Jennie took another swig and gasped, pounding her chest. Her curls, the silver burnished ones she’d been paying Verna at the Body Wave Salon weekly for for the past forty years, bounced as she set down her drink. “You’re finally engaged.”
    â€œYes,” Lani said. “But—”
    â€œEngaged to the most eligible bachelor in town.”Great-Aunt Jennie grinned and slapped her knee. “Imagine that!”
    â€œBut—”
    â€œHold it right there.” Jennie, who was eighty-two but didn’t look a day older than sixty-five, held up a hand. She knew her niece well. “Honey, why is it with you there’s always a but? ”
    Lani let out a reluctant grin. “And this but is a biggy.”
    Jennie sighed. “You’re going to ruin this for me, aren’t you?”
    â€œIt’s likely,” Lani admitted. Her great-aunt had not been the most conventional of guardians. She’d held séances, had traveled extensively, whipping Lani out of school on a whim, and had never followed any of the rules. She hadn’t joined the PTA, had never made easy friends with the other parents or driven in the carpool.
    But she’d been there for Lani when she’d had no one else, and for that she was grateful. Lani might have grown up differently than most, but Jennie had done the best she could and Lani would never forget it.
    But she was well aware that her aunt’s greatest wish was to see Lani taken care of. Jennie took it personally that Lani had a deep-rooted fear of emotional attachments. She wanted Lani to go the route of the very normal and expected marriage, no matter how abnormal Lani’s upbringing had been. She wantedLani’s future secure, and she wanted that because she loved Lani with all her slightly off-kilter, wacky heart.
    Realizing that brought both a lump to Lani’s throat and a shoulder-load of shame about the façade. She had to tell Jennie the truth about the engagement, had to make her understand that marriage, a true marriage, was just not in the cards.
    At that thought, Lani’s heart sent up a little protest, but now was not the time for self-reflection. “The truth is, it’s just pretend, Aunt Jennie. Colin needs me to pretend to marry him, that’s all.”
    â€œPretend.”
    â€œThat’s right.”
    They were in Jennie’s house, just a few blocks from Lani’s apartment. It was run down on the outside, but the inside was a treasure trove, decorated with things from all over the world that Jennie had collected on her various travels.
    There was not a speckle of dust, Jennie wouldn’t allow it. Not on her things. She was Lani’s toughest, hardest-to-please client, and also her